


A Friendly Conversation

by LoverOfStuff



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Talking, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoverOfStuff/pseuds/LoverOfStuff
Summary: After years, Peter and Tony finally talk it out. Or, at least, they try to.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Kudos: 32





	A Friendly Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Mild trigger warning for mention of suicide. Also, some of the dialogue is from things that Spider-man has said in comic books, because some of y'all need comics.

He saw him right there in the crowd. At this point, it took effort to not notice Peter. The kid had an aura that completely surrounded his very being. It was a nice aura, a compassionate one. It was a sense of safety. When Peter Parker walked into a room, you knew that you would be protected from anything.

Tony probably shouldn't be still thinking of him as 'the kid' though. It was a habit. He knew that Peter wasn't the young superhero anymore. He was a young man now. A year ago Peter had graduated from MIT. He graduated top five of his class and Tony had been pushing that University for years also, not to brag. And now he was on the verge of beginning his own company, Parker Industries. Not only that, but his superhero life was forming into a legacy that Tony only could have hoped for. An advocate for enhanced human's relations. From animal and environmental rights, to assisting Fury in villian rehabilitation systems, Spider-Man's calendar was filling up just as fast as Peter's.

Luckily, he was still just as short.

"I'm surprised you were able to clear your schedule." Tony said as he snuck up behind Peter, his familiar smirk was audible. "Ya know, for us little people."

Tony stepped slightly to the side to see the smile slowly form onto Peter's face. Geez he really missed the kid.

"Can you go into detail regarding reports of a Kree army approaching Earth's solar system?" A question from a reporter ruined the moment.

Tony groaned internally. His smirk, along with Peter's grin, fell back into a firm straight line. Spider-Man, and Peter, had become more of the reporters go to when asking about Avenging details. The kid had definitely become the spokesperson more or less. It wasn't exactly because the other Avengers didn't want to do it, although it was probably for the best for public relations. Peter had expressed enjoying letting people know all that would be going on. Tony remembered that he had said, 'everyone should be able to access knowledge that could affect their safety,' and that was that.

Bless him, Tony mused. Peter barely flinched.

"As far as we know, the Kree have not officially entered the solar system at this time." Peter started, speaking into the multiple microphones shoved near his mouth. "Captain Marvel has been patrolling the space and have been giving frequent updates though. Currently, the Avengers and the United Nations have been discussing that if the Kree enter Neptune's orbit, it will be seen as an act of war."

Tony sucked in his cheeks. Peter was honest, he'll give him that. The kid most likely was not supposed to be talking about this. Probably. But that didn't really stop him. Actually, the not caring attitude of blatantly leaking top secret information reminded Tony of himself.

Peter continued. "That being said, the Avengers and I will do everything in our power to protect everyone if that happened."

A microphone was motioned to Tony. "Aren't most of the Avengers basically retired?" A woman sneered the question out.

Peter glanced at Tony quickly. Too fast for Tony to see the look in his eye. Peter leaned further into the microphones. His voice was firm and unnerved. "Even if I am the only Avenger standing, I will do everything in my power to keep the Earth and all inhabitants safe."

The reporters silenced. Tony could sympathize. He had been receiving the effects of Peter's eyes for years now. They could quiet anyone. Tony can still recall all the blunt emotions he had seen in those chestnut pools. The unwavering hope. The undying trust. The trumatic sadness. He suspected that the reporters were getting the determined promise eyes. That one was hard to escape, he couldn't lie.

Tony decided to save them. "So if Mr. Celebrity can remember why he's actually here, you should know that we're all inside." He teased.

Peter spun around as if he had forgotten that Tony was there. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Oh, right. Sorry Tony." He began to step off to the side, giving a gesture to the reporters who backed up slightly.

Tony held up his hands. "Hey, no need to apologise to me. You may need to give one to Sam though. He's been complaining, for like, at least an hour."

Peter huffed. "He hasn't even been here for an hour."

"Yeah. But he knew you were gonna do this, so he was prematurely complaining." Tony joked.

Peter half smiled. He yawned loudly, and Tony finally took a good look at him as they made their way to the entrance of the restaurant. The kid didn't look too good. Something akin to his own day long binges in the lab. The bags under his eyes made his face look swollen. His hair, although gelled, was dry. His body moved more sluggish than usual, and his cheeks were flushed.

Tony frowned. "Hey, you feeling okay?"

Peter shrugged. "Just tired." He thought for a moment before continuing. "I've been flying between Washington and Russia and Wakanda about the newest enhanced human initiatives and then May-"

"Geez!" Tony interrupted, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "That sounds awful. Honestly. Terrible way to spend your party years. Do you wanna know I spent my twenties?"

Peter chuckled. But Tony could tell his heart wasn't really in it. "I've heard. And I really don't want to hear it again."

They grew silent again as they made their way to the reserved booth inside. Much to Tony's dismay, the silence has become the new norm between them. Of course it used to be different. They would talk for hours. Discussions of new technology, new suit ideas, or banter that would seem to go on forever. Things started to change as the years slowly went by. Peter grew up. The kid was always so busy with some sort of project, he hardly had any free time to phone anyone. And when he did have free time, it would normally be spent catching up on much needed sleep.

But it wasn't that alone that was putting a strain on their relationship. Tony was raising Morgan, was still running Stark Industries along with Pepper, and was still occasionally doing 'Avenging'. Both of their schedules were completely full at all times. Along with that, it was obvious that Peter was butting heads and getting more and more frustrated with the recently formed S.W.O.R.D. and the other Avengers. To put it simply, he didn't agree or like most of the things they would do. And, unfortunately, that included Tony.

Tony mused over all of this as they finally approached the booth. He missed the kid more than he admitted when he began to think on it.

"Finally!" Rhodey exclaimed when he saw the pair. "I thought the kid was gonna ditch us again."

Tony and Peter shuffled into the end seats of the booth on either side. At least once a month, some of the members of the Avengers would all meet together. Sometimes it was for bussiness, other times it would be to just catch up with each other. Tony, Steve, Bruce, Scott, and Natasha made a point to never miss a meet up. Rhodey and Sam would try to be there, but occasionally would be called away. Wanda, Vision and Clint were usually always there as well, but this one time they were already on vacation. Carole was currently patrolling the edges of the solar system, but usually showed up. The ones who never seemed to join were Fury, Maria, T'challa, Stephen, and of course, Peter.

Peter pressed his brows together. "Me?" He asked sarcastically. "Ditch you guys? Never!"

Natasha rolled her eyes as she moved over to give Peter more room. "Of course not." The corners of her lips curled upward.

"So what's on the agenda tonight?" Sam asked. "The kid finally graced us with his presence, so we gotta make it quick before he runs off again."

"I do have to leave in about an hour." Peter piped up automatically.

Steve pressed his lips together. "Of course." There was an awkward pause.

The group conversation didn't necessarily start again soon after. The pause lasted long enough for everyone to feel very uncomfortable. It wasn't normally like this. Usually the squad would be erupting in conversation and teasing jokes. It was only ever like this a couple of times a year. And everyone knew the common denominator was Peter.

Natasha turned and whispered something to Peter. He grinned, and turned his head to respond. At least they were smiling.

Steve sighed. "Was it always like this?"

"Oh don't you be turning into a buzzkill too." Sam warned. Tony, Scott, Rhodey, Steve and Sam formed inward on each other in the booth.

"Lay off the kid." Tony defended, but they could hear the tiredness in his voice. "I mean his hard work is definitely paying off. He's making better speeches than Cap."

Steve grimaced. "Did you hear what he did when Wakanda was being attacked two months ago?" He rubbed his face. "Kid fought a day and a half straight with no rest. Said he didn't want anybody to get hurt... Do you think maybe we should talk to him?"

The group glanced at Peter and Natasha. Their smiles were gone, but were still in deep conversation.

"I just said to lay off the kid!" Tony deflected. "I'll talk to him, okay? Next subject. Sam? How's whatsherface?"

Sam sat back and smiled. "You mean Chelsea? She's great. Keeps trying to perfect this Dijon chicken recipe, though. Can't seem to get it right everytime."

"I just taught Cassie how to make the best chicken fingers." Scott added.

"For you, that's nothing new." Rhodey teased.

"Maybe she could teach me how to make them." Tony interjected. He was trying to pay attention to the conversation, really. He was more focused on whatever Natasha and Peter were talking about.

"I have, nor ever will, ask Carol that. Ever." Rhodey's disgusted sounding voice broke through Tony's distracted state.

Steve shook his head with disgust as well. "That's... nope."

Sam raised his hand in defense. "Now hold on. Let him finish."

Scott nodded at Sam. "Thank you! Now, as I was saying-"

"They were unarmed Nat! They posed no threat to anyone! You guys can't just force your authority on people when no one has to die!" Peter interrupted the conversion. Very loudly.

Peter finally seemed to notice how loud he had been. He blushed embarrassingly and turned his attention to his lap. The restaurant had turned quickly at the outburst, as did the others at the booth, and all eyes were on Peter.

The kid realized this. The embarrassment faded from his face, and anger replaced it once again. He pushed himself out of the booth. "I don't even know why I'm here." He blurted out angrily.

They watched as he headed to the fire exit. Most people in the restaurant had taken out their phones, if they weren't already out, at Peter's outburst and had started recording.

Natasha sighed as she watched him leave. "He still is a kid isn't he?" She asked no one in particular.

"That's not fair, Nat." Steve said slowly, shaking his head. "He has a point, just maybe not all the right details."

"That's not what I mean." She was quick to answer.

Tony really could have let it be left at that. He really could have. Just another angry outburst from Peter to another Avenger, a regular Thursday evening, honestly. It would have been another argument added to the pile of Peter's 'reasons to be mad at the other Avengers' he was building up. Would one more to the pile been such a big deal with their already deteriorating relationship? It's not like he talks to, or even sees, the kid often enough for it to be brought up again. And thankfully it wasn't even him Peter had yelled at! What a plus!

But...

Tony sighed for longer than he should have as he stood up from the booth. He caught Steve's eye as he did so. Steve was usually pretty good about hiding his emotions in his eyes. But deep concern whenever he felt it always managed to slip out without fail.

The others were silent as Tony walked away from the booth, and he felt obliged to answer their silence with his own. He was a little annoyed at that, actually. Him and Pepper would sometimes do a similar thing. Whenever Morgan got into trouble, and one of them would go to talk to her, the other was lipped shut. But he wasn't with his wife to go to tell their kid what they did wrong. He was with his teammates. His teammates who should be, above all, working together.

Perhaps the captain was right. Was it always like this?

It was never hard to find Peter, thankfully. Some things never change. It was never for sure which, or where, the ceiling he was hanging from was, but he was usually on one when he was upset. Tony grinned as he opened the back exit door. He remembered one of the first times Peter had gotten really upset. It had been a rough mission for him, and when Tony went to check on him afterwards, Tony nearly fell down in shock when he walked into Peter's room and said kid was crying on the ceiling, his back sticking upside down.

Well, Tony was half right. Outside through the exit door, there was Peter. Not a ceiling unfortunately, but sticking sideways to the wall on the opposite to the large garbage bin. His knees were brought up to his chest, with his arms wrapped around himself, cocooning himself. His chin rested on the top of his knees, and his eyes had locked onto Tony as he walked out.

Tony gave the smallest of smiles as he decided to lean against the wall adjacent to Peter.

Peter beat him to be the first one to speak, though. "I dont want to start a fight with you today too, Tony."

There was a bit of a pause. Finally, Tony said, "remember when you used to call me 'Mr. Stark' all the time?"

"I never should have met you when I was teenager. It gave you way too much ammunition." Peter chuckled as he looked away, remembering those times years ago.

Tony smile grew larger as he remembered as well. "You were so much younger back then. A little naive. You never would've challenged whatever I said back then."

Peter's smile fell as his face warped into a sad, straight line. "I bet you would have preferred that huh? All of you? Someone that just went along quietly with whatever you guys decided was right?"

Tony winced internally. This was definitely coming across wrong. He shook his head. "No, no, no. Never." He groaned, knowing he had to try to cut to the chase quickly.

Peter ignored Tony's efforts as he continued. "All I'm asking is for everyone to not go for the killing blow. Is that so much to ask? In the heat of battle or whatever, to just try to always do the right thing-"

"You know that's not always possible-" Tony tried to interrupt.

"Yes, I know." Peter snapped back. "I'm not some stupid teenager anymore Tony."

"But..." Peter stopped himself, trying to find the best words. "We have to believe that the bad guys can change. We have to hope that anyone and everyone can change if we just give them a chance... We have to hold onto that if we want to save people. Because that's what this job is all about right? Not bringing out powers and mystic items and weapons of destruction to our peace rallies. Or to protect our authority when people- not bad guys, people- are dying by our hands." Peter held his gaze onto Tony's. "That's what the Avengers should be doing."

Tony let the words hit him as hard as Peter had intended. He knew what Peter was hinting at, intentional or not. What if Tony had never been given a second chance? After the incident in Afghanistan?

But Tony didn't want to argue any philosophies today. He's had enough screaming matches with Peter in the many years that he knew him to not want to have another. He remembered once the argument had got so heated that it had ended in a bit of a fist fight between the two. It was over yet another Sakovia accords revision. History repeats itself.

Giving yet another exhausted sigh, Tony rubbed his chin in defeat. "Peter... you can't put everything on your shoulders." He stated blatantly.

"Like hell I can't. Not like I can trust any of you to do the right thing at this point."

Now those words felt as if Peter had reached out and spit on him. Literally. Tony slapped the wall he was leaning on in reaction. He bit his tongue to stop from saying anything nasty in retort. Though Peter may not believe it anymore, Tony still felt such an instense protective feeling towards the kid everytime he sees him.

Finally, Tony responded. "Kid, if you don't stop putting everything on your shoulders your going to hurt yourself. I know what it's like. Trust me."

Peter mumbled something and looked away angrily. Tony could guess what the kid had grumbled.

Tony turned over and kicked the large garbage can beside him as he felt his anger rise even higher. "No. Fuck that Peter. You've been doing this for years now and I'm sick of it! You have some kind of suicidal death wish and you use the greater good as some sort of death note." He let out a frusterated groan in an attempt to calm himself down. "You throw yourself into every bad situation because you want to save everyone. But you can't."

"I can try-"

"Shh! No, the adult is talking." Tony interrupted the kid automatically. He didn't have time to acknowledge the slip before he continued. "Ive been watching you do it for years. I was done with it then, and I'm done with it now. You know that I care about you so damn much but that never stopped you from acting so recklessly with your own life." He stopped to sigh and rub the bridge of his nose. "Christ. I can't even bring Morgan around you. Because I never know when you're gonna end up killing yourself with this stuff."

Tony supposed that the two were just airing out everything then. To be fair, this was one of their most productive arguments. It took nearly ten years, but everything was now finally being said. Tony had to remind himself that, yes, he has been involved in Peter's life for ten years. He was twenty five now and they had met when he was fifteen. If a dark thought popped into Tony's head, he would realize that he has been in Peter's life longer than the kid's actual father. Almost as long as Peter's infamous Uncle.

Man... he was getting old.

Peter escaped a weary sigh. He eventually did look back to Tony. His eyes were threatening tears. "That's why Ive hardly seen Morgan?" He asked quietly.

Tears were also sitting on Tony's eyes, ready to leak if the right words were said soon. "I can't do something like that to my little girl, Pete." He tried to explain, his voice cracking the slightest bit. He avoided eye contact with Peter this time. One glimpse at the kid's eyes would break him right now, Tony knew it. He shook his head. "I can't." He reaffirmed. "I can't put her through an Uncle or something that's going to die on the road you're going down. She doesn't deserve that."

"Then what do you want me to do, Tony?" Peter asked quietly, and much more quickly than what Tony expected. "Not-" He stopped himself from continuing.

Tony sighed, attempting to find words, while a single tear escaped from his eye and began to roll down his cheek. "I just want the same thing I've been asking you for ten years, kid. Just please get some self preservation skills, and use them."

It was a lie. That's not all Tony wanted, or needed. He wanted to grab Peter by the shoulder and tell him that he's done enough. That the kid should remember to save himself while saving everyone else, too. He wanted to tell Peter that he was scaring him, and has been for a while. He was mortified to one day see on the news in the morning while making Morgan breakfast, that Spider-man was dead. Tony wouldn't be able to handle it. He would be a wreck. And he needed Peter to understand that. The reason why he was saving so many other people, was the same reason why Tony had to save Peter.

That's what he wanted to say.

Although, he thinks that the point came across anyway. Peter was such an empath, Tony supposed. The kid stared at him quietly, as if he was hearing his thoughts. Tony did everything in his power to not look directly back at Peter. Just one single look would break him. And Peter's eyes just held on.

"I could try that." Peter finally said softly. "It's been long enough that I should definitely give self preservation a try... and maybe you guys could try the reverse? Like, life preservation for some of the people you fight?"

Tony nodded. "We could definitely try that... and maybe you could drop by the cabin sometime and try Pepper's homemade mac n' cheese? Morgan loves it."

Peter smiled. Maybe things would start changing, slowly. He was hopeful.

"I'd like that."


End file.
